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Important things to know about DEBT

Is there any season in your life that your earnings for this month is not already yours? Because even before it goes to your bank account, it already belong to someone else.. sad part is it’s not even your spouse but Creditors.

My husband and I experienced that, bad debt is bondage, it causes us a huge amount of stress.

But how did we acquire debts?

1. We buy things before earning most commonly in the form of “credit card debt” – we thought our income will remain at its peak and we kept on buying new stuff for our newborn Zee that time, but when I decided to become a fulltime mom and be on business hiatus, our income dropped real low and we couldn’t pay the full amount of our bill and ended up acquiring compound interest.

2. Became a guarantor – a very big mistake on our part, we borrowed money for other people’s emergency. Since we are the one who borrowed for them the moment they cannot pay, we don’t have a choice but pay for it to protect our integrity because we believe that having integrity is better than material riches.

3. Lack of income – we loss our emergency fund when my husband’s job went off-season and as I’ve mentioned earlier I was on a business leave and our businesses didn’t operate well when I was not around – another mistake that I wasn’t able to duplicate myself well.

That’s why 2 years ago, we’ve decided to change our lifestyle or should I say we are forced to change it.(Less eat-out, no more cable tv, living with less and eating “tipid” meals)

Last September 17, Sunlife Brighterlife Institute hosted a course about “Debt” and the trainer was none other than Mr. Aya Laya, the man behind “Pesos & Sense”, He is a Certified Securities representative, a Certified Investment Company representative, a realtor, and a writer with an MBA from University of Western Australia. (credits to Pesos and Sense Website)

I am happy to share with you my take home learning from the workshop about Debt.

“Important things we should know about Debt” :

Debt is simply the use of other people’s money. Debt is not actually a negative thing. Debt can be used as a tool to make our financial life comfortable.

Coach Aya Laya discussed the two kinds of debts, Good and Bad Debt. Yes you heard it right, there’s such thing as good debt.

The Good and Bad Debt Comparison

I got really curious, especially in business debt, true enough that most of the time, lack of fund is what hinders a business growth – like lack of machines and state-of-the-art equipments.

Most of the wealthiest and most successful entrepreneurs actually use Other People’s Money to grow their business – examples are businesses on stock market.

A simple laptop can be a good debt too, if you will use it to generate income like additional online jobs, freelance work and more ,but if you will you it for status symbol , then I think it will fall into the bad debt category.

He also shared the questions we need to ask ourselves before borrowing:

It will definitely be a good practice to ask these questions before we enter any financial debt.

WHY? Should we know our WHY’s? Do we really Have to? or we can consider other options?

Coach Aya Laya also shared some ways on how we can get out of credit card debts. Surprisingly, those are the exact steps we did last year when we’ve decided to pay off our debts – not just in credit card debts.

Let me share with you dear readers, the format we’ve used to pay off our debts last year. The chart is just a sample, for some security reasons I didn’t include the real names and amount of the debts.

Here are the steps we did last year in settling all our debts and Coach Aya Laya also discussed these steps in the workshop especially in dealing with credit card debts.

We are currently praying and planning on how we can pay off our home loan the earliest possible time because we noticed that only 10% of our principal balance was deducted to our monthly loan payment 90% is all interest rate. Woah! Coach Laya discussed about the “compound interest” too, we can either be a victim of it or enjoy compound interest by investing.

Coach Aya Laya also mentioned that most of us have misbelief of “We can use other people’s money for free” which is a sad belief. We need to be fair, respect other people’s hard work, and pass the integrity of working in the truth and with the Truth always.

I also remember what Chinkee Tan told us before, “it is the willingness to pay the debt that truly matters”.

It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Ecclesiastes 5:5

Debt can help or destroy businesses, personal statures and relationships. It is in the matter of how we view it perhaps. I believe we should always be mindful of the things we and careful jumping into things we don’t understand. We should always ask for wisdom from God for there is no other consultant for our decisions than the One who created everything.

I hope this post help people who are going through financial debts just like we did.

Have you also gone through debts and got out of it? Feel free to share your thoughts and tips.

40 thoughts on “Important things to know about DEBT”

This is really helpful for families to help rethink their lifestyles and to start thinking about their future. Nice to know that there are companies like Sunlife that helps family achieve their goals of financial freedom and security. Thanks for sharing Gracie.

As much as possible never borrow from the future. That’s what I learned since I became a mom. No to credit cards. Save before spend. I’m not rich but I don’t buy things I don’t need. Unless of course, if there are extra budgets for that. But if not, save for the future

I don’t ever want to even be a guarantor. That’s just difficult, specially when you yourself is trying to be debt-free. Right now, my husband and I are trying to save for emergency funds. According to my workmate, I should have at least 6 months worth of pay for emergency funds! That’s a lot! haha. Di pa ako nakaka 3 months. lol.

Thank you for your tips. These are real helpful. Somehow, it helped me reflect and access our present situation. We arent indebted. And have no plans to be one. One thing I learned from this — to live the lifestyle our money could only buy.

This is very helpful mommy especially to families who can’t keep track where their money really goes. I love the idea of listing and identifying each expense for reference. Mabuti nalang tapos na ko sa credit card debt phase hehehe. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for this! I’m actually really allergic to debt, which is why I chose to buy a second hand car over a brand new one and why I bought a piece of land just outside a village rather than a subdivision lot. I hate having to think about monthly payments! :D

This is very helpful and informative. Even if you want to save, it’s hard to being lalo na if you have debt. So better that you pay it off first, adjust your lifestyle then focus on building up your savings.

Having a payment plan is a good tip. It, at least givea you a concrete action step in paying up the debt. Sometimes, just having a plan makes the future look brighter than continuing to worry about how to pay off the debt.

I guess debts talaga is something na natutunan mo talagang iwasan pag nalubog ka na minsan. My husband and I always talk about it it na one thing that we will need to teach our kids is managing their finances well, and as much as possible, not living in debts.

Good to know that there are two types of debt. My husband and I are allergic to it and one of our cardinal rules in money is to never buy anything unless we can afford it. We dont really like using credit card and as much as possible, pay in cash :)

Apart from building up my saving and learning about investing, I would also like to be debt-free. So far the only thing I need to worry about is my pending loan which I was not able to pay since I left work several years back. This year, I started paying this debt off and I hope to be able to pay it in full by next year.